South Korean Incheon Airport Closes For 3 Hours Due To North Korean Waste Balloons

UNSPLASH/lee sangmyeong ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - South Korea's Incheon international airport was disrupted for about three hours due to hot air balloons filled with garbage sent by North Korea.

One balloon landed on the runway near the terminal of 2 passengers impacting a temporary closure on Incheon's three runways, an airport spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday, June 26.

FlightRadar24 shows eight cargo flights and arriving passengers being diverted to Cheongju or Jeju airport in South Korea during the shutdown time, and a Chinese cargo cargo cargo cargo cargo ship from Shanghai was diverted to Yantai, China.

Several more landings were delayed, and departures were delayed by several hours.

North Korea said the balloons were retaliation for a propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in the South who routinely delivered balloons carrying food, medicines, money and leaflets criticizing North Korean leaders.

Among the items carried by North Korean balloons are printed items with Hello Kitty characters, outdated clothing, and soil that contains traces of human and parasitic waste, South Korea said.

The South Korean military said about 100 balloons fell to the ground between Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly in the capital, Seoul, and surrounding Gyeonggi province. Most of them only brought a piece of paper.